Grandma Glenda Dowis in court. How will she explain this to her grandchild in 15 years or so?

LAKECLARKESHORES — A Fort Pierce woman pointed a gun at her pregnant 16-year-old daughter’s belly, drove her to a clinic and was arrested after saying if the girl didn’t abort the child she’d “blow her brains out,” police said.

When mother and daughter arrived at the Aware Woman Medical Center here shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday, Glenda Diane Dowis told workers to perform the procedure although “my daughter may seem a bit teary,” according to police.

Once alone with clinic workers, Brittany Dowis wrote on a medical form that her mother was forcing her to end her pregnancy. At about the same time, Glenda Dowis told a nurse in the waiting room, “If my daughter doesn’t have this abortion, I’m going to blow her brains out.” Clinic workers called police.

Police found a loaded .38-caliber Rossi Special in a briefcase on the back seat of Dowis’ car.

The 67-mile trip to the clinic followed several days of arguing about the pregnancy, police said.

“The mother had been threatening to beat her until she miscarried,” said Detective Michelle Ferrara, who interviewed the girl Tuesday. Brittany Dowis’ father and stepfather — who had adopted her — are both dead, police said.

On Tuesday, the teen told police her mother phoned her from outside the house and said, “Today’s the day.”

Later, Brittany Dowis stepped into the hallway of the family’s home and saw her mother pointing a gun at her stomach from about 3 feet away and saying she would kill her if she didn’t have an abortion.

Glenda Dowis stopped to pick up a friend who was close to Brittany and the three drove in silence to Lake Clarke Shores, where Glenda Dowis had made an appointment for her daughter, Ferrara said.

“She was petrified,” Ferrara said.

Brittany Dowis returned home to Fort Pierce with the family friend, Pamela Limberis, who supported Dowis’ desire to continue her pregnancy, police said.

Glenda Dowis, 42, of 300 Deerwood Lane, faces charges of false imprisonment and domestic abuse and was booked into the Palm Beach County jail Tuesday night without bail.

Brittany Dowis told police her mother kept the gun under the front seat of the car during the drive but she saw her mother put it in her purse when they arrived at the clinic at 1497 Forest Hill Blvd. Police said Glenda Dowis may have returned the gun to the car after she brought her daughter into the building.

“What would you do if your daughter was pregnant and wouldn’t have an abortion?” Ferrara said Dowis asked her.

“You’re asking the wrong person,” Ferrara said she told Dowis. “I was pregnant when I was 15.” Her daughter is 15 now, she said.

Last year, the state legislature passed a law contemplating a different scenario: when a teenager wants an abortion that the parents may not support. The law, which required doctors to notify parents before performing the procedure, was struck down in May by a judge who ruled it violated the child’s right to privacy.

“We should be looking at ways to keep families from reaching such a tragic place,” said Lillian Tamayo, CEO for Planned Parenthood of Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast. Ultimately, Tamayo said Tuesday, “It is in the purview of the young woman to make the choice for herself.”

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Dr. Francis Schaeffer - How Should We Then Live? (DVD)

Special Two-Disc Set!

After 40 years of intense study and world-wide ministry, Dr. Francis Schaeffer completed his crowning work of scholarship – to present profound truths in simple film language. Dr. Schaeffer’s brilliant analysis of the past and predictions for current trends have proven so uncannily accurate that this amazing series still feels contemporary almost three decades after its initial release. Ultimately, Schaeffer concludes that man’s only hope is a return to God’s Biblical absolute, the truth revealed in Christ through the Scriptures.

Available for the first time on DVD, this documentary spectacular also includes intimate in-depth conversations with Francis and Edith Schaeffer. With the on-disc study guide, this presentation forms a unique course of comprehensive study. While this series forms an innovative analysis of the past, this outstanding work is more than history. Each episode focuses on a significant era, yet speaks clearly to 21st-century man with answers for modern problems.

Freedom: The Model of Christian Liberty (DVD)

“Give me liberty or give me death!”

Patrick Henry’s famous declaration not only helped launch the War for Independence, it also perfectly summarized the mindset that gave birth to, and sustained, the unprecedented experiment in Christian liberty that was America.

The freedom our Founders envisioned was not freedom from suffering, want, or hard work. Nor was it freedom to indulge every appetite or whim without restraint—that would merely be servitude to a different master. No, the Founders’ passion was to live free before God, unfettered by the chains of autocracy, shackles that slowly but inexorably bind men when the governments they fashion fail to recognize and uphold freedom’s singular, foundational truth: that all men are created in the image of God, and are thereby co-equally endowed with the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

This presentation is a similar call, not to one but many. By reintroducing the principles of freedom that gave birth to America, it is our prayer that Jesus, the true and only ruler over the nations, will once again be our acknowledged Sovereign, that we may again know and exult in the great truth that “where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17).

Welcome to the Second American Revolution!

This DVD features “Liberty: The Model of Christian Liberty” along with “Dawn’s Early Light: A Brief History of America’s Christian Foundations.” Bonus features include a humorous but instructive collection of campaign ads and Eric Holmberg’s controversial YouTube challenge concerning Mitt Romney’s campaign for president.

Martin Luther: Digitally Remastered 1953 Classic (DVD)

“Here I stand … I can do no other!”

With these immortal words, an unknown German monk sparked a spiritual revolution that changed the world.

The dramatic classic film of Martin Luther’s life was released in theaters worldwide in the 1950s and was nominated for two Oscars. A magnificent depiction of Luther and the forces at work in the surrounding society that resulted in his historic reform efforts, this film traces Luther’s life from a guilt-burdened monk to his eventual break with the Roman Catholic Church.

Go Stand Speak (DVD)

With “preaching to the lost” being such a basic foundation of Christianity, why do many in the church seem to be apathetic on this issue of preaching in highways and byways of towns and cities?

Is it biblical to stand in the public places of the world and proclaim the gospel, regardless if people want to hear it or not?

Does the Bible really call church pastors, leaders and evangelists to proclaim the gospel in the public square as part of obedience to the Great Commission, or is public preaching something that is outdated and not applicable for our day and age?

The Silent Scream (DVD) Eight Languages

“When the lives of the unborn are snuffed out, they often feel pain, pain that is long and agonizing.” – President Ronald Reagan to National Religious Broadcasters Convention, January 1981

Ronald Reagan became convinced of this as a result of watching The Silent Scream – a movie he considered so powerful and convicting that he screened it at the White House.

The modern technology of real-time ultrasound now reveals the actual responses of a 12-week old fetus to being aborted. As the unborn child attempts to escape the abortionist’s suction curette, her motions can be seen to become desperately agitated and her heart rate doubles. Her mouth opens – as if to scream – but no sound can come out. Her scream doesn’t have to remain silent, however … not if you will become her voice. This newly re-mastered version features eight language tracks and two bonus videos.

The Abortion Matrix:
Defeating Child Sacrifice and the Culture of Death is a 195-minute presentation that traces the biblical roots of child sacrifice and then delves into the social, political and cultural fall-out that this sin against God has produced. You can order this series on DVD, read the complete script and view clips on-line...continued ...